Category: Negative Online Comments

How Do You Deal With Spam Emails In Your Professional Inbox?

2/18/2021

Continuing with our current blog series, we are going to be discussing how to deal with spam and phishing in your inbox. Today's focus will be on how to spot these hazardous emails, how you can fight back, and how to protect yourself from any and all dangers lurking in your email!

Hello readers! Hello Summerville! Welcome to the Creative Consulting blog, coming to you from the heart of Summerville, SC just a little drive up from Charleston, SC! We hope that wherever you are that this blog finds you healthy and well! While we are still battling with the effects of a global pandemic, there is another difficult fight that many companies have to deal with daily; fighting spam and phishing comments, messages, and emails across their entire digital fingerprint. The scams and those behind them are becoming harder to recognize as spam, and they are becoming more intelligent and malicious every day. As we've been discussing through this blog series, it's something that everyone deals with, something that you can't give up fighting on, and something that sometimes is very hard not to fall into.

As we hinted in the first blog of this series, spam emails are starting to look more legitimate every day, becoming more tailored to their target audiences, and hard to recognize as spam. These emails can cause fear, frustration, lead to a virus destroying your personal or work computer, or expose sensitive information from your personal or professional life. We've seen it in the news multiple times as cybercrime has grown; a giant corporation will get hacked and millions will have their personal information exposed or personal information gets into the wrong hands. However, even more frightening is the fact that these scams can happen to anyone and any size company. These spammers and hackers don't discriminate, they just keep on working. How can you recognize spam emails and how can you protect yourself against them? That is what we will be discussing today!

How Do You Recognize Spam Emails?
Why put such a big focus on spam in email form? Why disguise them as big bank chains, Netflix, or Amazon? Email is a very cheap and costless platform that allows spammers and hackers to reach high volumes of individuals very quickly. Why the popular chains? It's the fact that almost everyone is connected to at least one if not all of these popular resources, making the scams look incredibly believable. According to westtek.com, more than 95% of emails sent throughout the world are more than likely spam. According to the Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, it has been found that 84% of world wide email traffic is unsolicited and malicious. With statistics like that, how can you fight against something so powerful? How can you recognize what is spam and what is not?

Make sure you know who is sending you an email before opening it. If you receive an email from someone you don't know or a company you've never heard of, approach it with caution.
Legitimate companies and real people will address you by name when sending you an email. A very generic greeting or one that feels inappropriate like "hi dear", "valued customer", "sir or madame", or "to who it may concern", is more than likely spam. Legitimate businesses would always address you professionally and by name.
Have you received an email that promises incredible wealth, weight loss, or an amazing deal? If something sounds too good to be true, it more than likely is. Spam will attract its readers with very promising and exciting titles and will entice readers by saying, "all you need to do is click here!". Avoid these emails as much as possible, and please do NOT click anything!
Many phishing or spam emails will ask you for very private and sensitive information. Real companies and individuals will never ask for this through an email.
One sure fast way to spot a spam email is finding very blatant spelling and grammar mistakes. Companies like Amazon and Netflix would never have common grammar or spelling mistakes in their emails.
Not only should you know who the email is from, but you need to watch for spoof email addresses. Many spammers and hackers will create email domains that look real and professional but are just a little off. You can take your mouse and hover over the email and see if any strange alterations like letters or random numbers have been added to the address. If it doesn't look professional or is just slightly off, it most likely is.
Avoid emails that are threatening or urgent. Causing fear and panic in their target audience is a very common tactic for phishers and scammers. They want to scare you into acting without thinking and giving up your personal information. No professional would threaten you.
Legitimate companies never force you to visit their website and they wouldn't send unsolicited attachments or documents for you to view. If you receive phishing or scam emails with website links or attachments, please do not open them or click them! This could give your computer a virus or allow the sender to take any personal information available on your computer.
A lot of the time, spam will call itself out by saying, "this is not spam!". That is the biggest red flag! A real company or individual would never have to defend themselves like that.
Watch how the spelling of the company is presented in an email. Your brain might not catch it right away, but it can be one of the biggest red flags that the email you're reading is a scam! For example - PayPal spells their name with two capital Ps. An email from the company would never spell its name as paypal.

How Do You Protect Yourself From Spam Emails?

First off, please install or have someone install anti-spam and anti-virus software on your computer. This special software will tag emails that are spam and can block viruses, phishing attacks, and dangerous malware.
Only give your email address out to people you trust and to companies you trust. Even then, you do need to approach giving your email out to companies with caution. Never post your email address publicly!
Once you've recognized a suspicious or spam email, don't open it and do not respond to it.
If you are someone who enjoys signing up for online contests, deals, and more, try to avoid using your personal or professional email address when you do so. Don't use any email account that is connected to sensitive information like your bank account or Amazon account.
Spam and other attacks can appear on your phone, too. To help prevent this, let your phone's software update automatically.
When you have the option for multi-factor authentication to log in to certain sensitive accounts, always choose these options. It will be a two-step process to log into these accounts, making them much more difficult to break into.
Always back up your data, and make sure that the backed-up information isn't connected to your home or work network. Do this for all of your smart devices.
Set up email filters to detect and get rid of spam before you even open it. Depending on your email platform, you can set certain words and phrases to be marked as spam and they can automatically be sent to your spam or mail folders.
When you receive a spam email, block them from sending you anything again.

How Do You Report phishing or scamming?

First, if you are concerned about your accounts you have been emailed about, instead of clicking on the links or visiting the website linked in the suspicious email, call the company instead and see if there is a problem.
According to the Consumer Information provided by the Federal Trade Commission, if you get a phishing email you can forward it to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@apwg.org. If you receive a phishing text message, forward the message to SPAM (7726)
You can also report the attack to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint. Follow the link below to learn more and directly visit the Federal Trade Commission website!
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams

Checking your email and text messages should never bring you worry or stress about spamming or phishing, but sadly it happens every day. We hope this guide helps you to combat this daily issue, that it helps give you peace of mind, and that it helps to keep you and your company safe! If you have any more questions or comments, please never hesitate to reach out to us! If there is a topic you would like to see as a future blog, don't hesitate to reach out and share that with us as well! Until next time, stay safe and caffeinated Summerville!

0 Comments

Back to Blog

Battling Negative Social Media Comments (Part Two)

10/19/2020

We are finishing up our blog series on the best ways to handle negative social media comments. We know it's a difficult situation to deal with, but with enough preparation, you can be ready to handle anything!

Hello, Summerville! Welcome back to part two of our blog about handing negative social media comments. We hope that part one of this blog gave you a good basis for how to move forward if you are faced with this issue. As we mentioned before, this is not something we would wish on anyone. Sadly, it is very possible. Hopping on the internet and telling everyone exactly how you feel has become a trend since the dawning of Facebook, if not sooner, and has continued to grow stronger in the years following. As a business, you prepare for the inevitable with insurance, a strong plan, a good financial team, and a good workforce. Why not be prepared for everything you might face? Keep a watchful eye on all of your online networks, and be ready to handle everything and everyone you come across with an attitude of being calm, cool, and collected.

Conversational Tone

When you create a social media presence, your brand and the tone in which you speak sets the example for how you want your clients to speak and respond to you and one another. If you create a safe, friendly, and happy community with your tone on social media, negative and nasty comments will seem out of place. Your other follows and supporters might even come to your defense. Also, make sure to approach every comment like a real person. You don't want to sound like a robot when you're dealing with an unhappy customer. Making a human connection with them in a real voice in your responses will make all the difference in beginning to diffuse the situation.

It might be incredibly hard, but take a moment to see the issue from the client's point of view. There will be people who will be angry just to be angry. If the product or service your company offers is broken, doesn't deliver as promised, or arrives extremely late, apologizing and owning up to your mistakes will help. Offering a discount, refund, voucher, or replacement can also help calm the tension at hand.

Make sure you are aware of the comments you're receiving. Keep notifications on and connect them to a phone or email that will be checked and monitored frequently. Also, make sure to follow up with any complaints and follow through with what you promise to offer your client. Make sure you understand what the problem is and discuss how it can be fixed. Once these terms have been agreed on, follow through with them and check back in with your client to make sure they're happy and satisfied with the situation. This shows that you really care, and you didn't just fix the problem and forget about them.

Sometimes you will run into a situation where an issue is out of your control. A system error could be beyond your knowledge to repair, your suppliers that help create your goods and services could be doing something to harm the quality of your product, and sometimes you are in a situation where you don't have the answers or a way to fix it yourself. That's okay - you're human. This doesn't mean you just toss it away and brush the problem off, you still have to fix it. What you can do is outsource someone who can help you. Recruit a good IT company, find a new supplier, and find the best of the best in what you're having issues with. This can cause a hike in price than just refunding your customer, but this can be a priceless decision to help keep your customer and continue bringing in others. It is never wrong to ask for help with something you don't know! Not only can this help relations between you and your customer, but it can be a learning opportunity for you and your team as well!

The Power of Website Traffic

When we talk about the power of negative comments, it does go beyond just your Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, and Google My Business pages. It can damage the flow to your website. Your online footprint depends on this traffic to sell products, introduce your products to new customers, and to continue to reach your customer demographic. There is still a large enough audience that exists out there that doesn't use social media but are still savvy enough to read reviews and visit websites. If this demographic happens to be your key customers, this could mean bad news for you and your company. If you are consistent in following up with every review and handling the situation, this issue can be avoided. This is why it is so imperative to keep up with these comments and to get on them as quickly as possible.

According to Forbes, 84% of people who go looking into a company online say they trust the reviews they see. Sometimes you can't help how people will respond or react, their anger could be something completely out of your hands. If you can, try to get ahead of any potential problems so negativity can be avoided. Listen to your customers before things get difficult. Have you been hearing similar small complaints? Have you been hearing the same suggestion over and over again? Have people been supporting you for a significant amount of time, but have been asking for a revamp of your goods and services? Listen to them! They are giving you excellent free advice, why not take it? If you can get ahead of the curve, this can help avoid negative situations.

The Bottom Line

Having a social media presence for your company is necessary for owning a company today. A lot of how you respond reflects your reputation and that brand identity we talked about in one of our most recent blogs. Remember that who you are and where you are as a company in these situations is important too. Be transparent and honest with your clientele. Many people who will make these comments or complaints will understand that there is a real human behind the company. Humans make mistakes. If you own up to them and you create that human connection and conversation with the upset party, an issue can be handled quickly. Plus, according to GoDaddy, a negative comment or two on your social media can humanize your company. Having only 5-Star reviews can come off as phony and fake to outsiders, some might even conclude that all of those perfect ratings were made by a bot or were purchased. How ironic, right? You can't always have it all, but sometimes that's for the better. We aren't saying you should go out and get a few harmful reviews, but just to not freak out if a few do pop up on your Google or Instagram account.

Negative comments are bound to happen. It's how you deal with them that will make all the difference. Everyone is allowed to have their opinion, but make sure your voice as a company isn't quiet. Don't be afraid to connect with these unhappy people, human to human. Remember too, one bad comment does not reflect your company as a whole. Take it in stride, and keep doing what you do best! If you need help or would like to learn more, please contact us! We look forward to talking to you soon!

0 Comments

Back to Blog

Battling Negative Social Media Comments (Part One)

9/30/2020

Dealing with negative comments or bots is sadly something every business needs to prepare to handle. It's not a fun situation or topic, but it's always best to be prepared.

Hello, Summerville! How is our favorite city? We hope you're staying safe and making the best out of your week! This week's blog is going to touch on an uncomfortable topic that sadly every business that has an online presence needs to prepare for. When a company creates its online presence, its goal is to create a positive community to share their products, services, knowledge about their industry, to connect with their customers and future customers, and connect with anyone who happens to discover their brand. With the freedom that the internet allows and the ability to hide behind a keyboard, this positive community isn't always positive or well-received. People will have their opinions and the internet allows them to share them in an instant, regardless if they're good or bad.

In a world dominated by Google reviews, Yelp reviews, comments, and opinions, staying on top of these interactions is incredibly important. It's not a pleasant part of owning a business today, but it is a reality. Hopefully, this isn't something that you'll have to deal with often but just in case, it's always best to stay prepared. Social media and the internet has its own culture, its way of interacting, and its way of how best to communicate. It is a different animal compared to dealing with an upset or disgruntled client in real life, which is why many of the normal practices of dealing with these situations might not work. In this two-part blog, we are going to give you a few tips and suggestions on how to deal with handling negative comments, and how to move on from them.

Keeping Your Cool

One of the first things you have to remember is that the solitary poster who makes an angry comment is not the only one who will be watching and waiting for a response from you. They are not the only ones who are expectant to see how you will handle the situation. Everyone who comes across the post or comment in the future will see it too. How you respond could affect a future client or current customer's decision to continue to work with you or not. A lot of these comments can come from a place of anger and are a representation of one moment in time. They might not reflect the person as a whole. That is the danger of the internet. When someone gets mad the internet allows them to write and say horrible things and post them without forcing them to think about what they're saying or the damage it could cause. If they had a moment to calm down and think through their actions, the comment might haven't existed. On the other hand, some people will have an actual complaint from a bad experience while others are just being mean to be mean. In this case, you have to remember to not take it personally.

Many trolls, scammers, and bots are trying to get an emotional response from you so they have the upper hand in making you and your company look bad. Don't allow them to do this. First, make sure to document these posts or comments. Take a screenshot on your phone or computer just in case. Deleting the comment won't be in your best favor. It could anger the person who commented in the first place, and it could also bring your integrity into question by the commenter and anyone who saw the post before the comment was removed, according to Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The only time you should remove a negative comment is if it has nothing to do with your company or if they are inappropriate. Remove these comments and block the user who is abusing and attacking your social media platforms. This is an example of people being mean to be mean.

Make sure to discuss your response with your fellow employees, if a response is necessary, and make sure to do it quickly. Anyone can see these comments, and news travels fast on social media. Make sure to get a handle on it before it handles you. With this being said, the continued conversation doesn't have to be in the public eye. Make sure to respond to every comment, but invite the disgruntled party to connect with you outside of social media. Invite them to email you or to directly message you to fix the issue at hand. Make it known to your customers where they can turn to if they do have issues and who they can speak to. This can channel these issues into a safe space instead of all over the internet.

The internet can be an easy escape and a wonderful addition to running your company. It can also be a harmful place for quick and ugly comments and opinions to spew. We do believe that inherently, people are trying to be good. Sometimes, a bad experience makes us angry for a split second, but that doesn't mean that we are bad people. The internet opened up a world of wonderful and it also opened up the possibility for a lot of ugliness. Learning how to deal with it professionally and quickly is a skill that you will acquire when owning a business. In our next blog, we will be continuing this topic and giving you more ideas on how to handle these situations. Until next time, stay safe and sound Summerville!

0 Comments

The Switch: CC's Blog

How Do You Deal With Spam Emails In Your Professional Inbox?

Battling Negative Social Media Comments (Part Two)

Battling Negative Social Media Comments (Part One)

105 SOUTH CEDAR STREET
SUITE A
SUMMERVILLE SC 29483

Home | Graphic Design | SEO
Social Media Management | Contact
Employment | Our Team

The Switch: CC's Blog

How Do You Deal With Spam Emails In Your Professional Inbox?

Battling Negative Social Media Comments (Part Two)

Battling Negative Social Media Comments (Part One)

105 SOUTH CEDAR STREETSUITE ASUMMERVILLE SC 29483

Home | Graphic Design | SEO Social Media Management | Contact​Employment | Our Team

105 SOUTH CEDAR STREET
SUITE A
SUMMERVILLE SC 29483

Home | Graphic Design | SEO
Social Media Management | Contact
Employment | Our Team